IT Sequel’s 1980s Flashbacks Are ‘Very Big Part’ of the Film

IT director Andy Muschietti says the sequel to the blockbuster horror thriller will feature significant flashbacks to the 1989 versions of The Losers’ Club. Based on Stephen King’s classic best-seller, IT smashed records on its way to pulling in more than $123 million at the domestic box office this past weekend.

Coming 27 years after the first IT adaptation planted nightmares of Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Tim Curry) as a two-part TV miniseries, Muschietti’s version of IT differs from the original adaptation in that it only focused on half of King’s 1,100-plus page novel – as it told the plight of The Losers’ Club’s members and their encounters with Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) as kids. The TV miniseries, on the flip side, focused on both the child and adult versions of the outcasts.

While plans for the IT sequel have been discussed and the film awaits its official greenlight from Warner Bros., Andy Muschietti and his producer sister, Barbara Muschietti, are already divulging details of the second chapter of IT – and luckily for fans of the actors who played the members of The Losers’ Club in the first film, they’ll get to see them again to some degree in the sequel. In an interview with EW on Monday, Andy Muschietti revealed the news of the child actors’ return to the sequel, saying:

“On the second movie, that dialogue between timelines will be more present. If we’re telling the story of adults, we are going to have flashbacks that take us back to the ‘80s and inform the story in the present day.”

The good thing for the young IT cast – which includes Jaeden Lieberher (Bill), Sophia Lillis (Beverly), Finn Wolfhard (Ritchie), Jeremy Ray Taylor (Ben), Chosen Jacobs (Mike), Wyatt Oleff (Stanley) and Jack Dylan Grazer (Eddie) – is that their appearances will be more than brief cameos. Andy Muschietti says, in fact, “They’re a very big part of the action” in the events that lead to the adult version of the characters.

On the downside, they’re all adolescents, which means the window to film them as the same age as they appear in the first IT is very short. That means while a sequel is definitely happening, it needs to go into production as soon as possible, says Barbara Muschietti. She tells EW:

“The hope is we’ll find the best way soon, because it’s also important for Andy to get flashbacks with the kids, who are growing very fast. They are an important component in the next film.”

While it appears that the Muschiettis need to jump right into production on the IT sequel, fans shouldn’t have to fear that the film will suffer because of it. The filmmaking siblings clearly entered the project with the intent of making two films, so any creative decisions for chapter 2 won’t be made haphazardly. And while it feels like a pressure situation to get the young cast back into production soon, the Muschiettis will have the comfort of doing so knowing that their young ensemble has incredible chemistry, which has been validated by the film’s stellar reviews and monster reception at the box office.

If there will be any stumbling blocks, it will be the unenviable task of picking which actors will play the adult members of the Losers Club – since A-listers are probably already vying for consideration to be a part of one of the bigger phenomenons to hit Hollywood in awhile.